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n-Butanol and Acetone: Maize Mash Fermented by Weizmann's Bacteria
Weizmann's fermentation (US 1,315,585, 1919) turns maize starch into butyl alcohol and acetone. The bacteria live on the grain itself: you catch them by fermenting many small maize-mash cultures, keeping the ones that smell most strongly of butyl alcohol, and heating each subculture to 90–100 °C for a minute or two so that only their heat-proof spores survive. The finished culture ferments a sterilised mash of 100 parts maize meal in 1500 of water in about two days, and the mash is then distilled.
The picture: our diagram.
Advanced
About 2 days a batch, once the culture is raised
Instructions
1
1
Start many cultures
Start many cultures
Make about 100 tubes of hot (90–100 °C), dilute (about 2 %), sterile maize mash, add a little raw maize meal to each, and let them ferment at about 35–37 °C for four to five days.
Tools needed:
Cornmeal
Water
Test Tubes
Benchtop Autoclave
Water Bath
Thermometer - Lab2
2
Pick the butanol smellers
Pick the butanol smellers
Choose the tubes that ferment most vigorously and smell most strongly of butyl alcohol. Heat them to 90–100 °C for one to two minutes: most bacteria die, but the wanted heat-resisting spores survive.
Tools needed:
Test TubesWater BathThermometer - Lab
Heat-Resistant Gloves3
3
Subculture 100 to 150 times
Subculture 100 to 150 times
Inoculate a fresh sterilised maize mash with the heated culture. When it has grown, heat it to 90–100 °C for one to two minutes and use it to inoculate the next mash. Repeat 100 to 150 times. Air need not be kept out.
Tools needed:
CornmealWaterTest TubesBenchtop AutoclaveWater BathThermometer - Lab4
4
Make and sterilise the mash
Make and sterilise the mash
Mix 100 parts maize meal with 1500 parts water. Sterilise it for three to four hours at 130–140 °C (2–3 atmospheres) and cool it.
Materials for this step:
Cornmeal100 partsTools needed:
Water
Balance ScaleBenchtop AutoclaveHeat-Resistant Gloves5
5
Ferment two days
Ferment two days
Inoculate with the final culture and keep at about 35–36 °C. Fermentation starts in five to ten hours, runs strongly for about 36 hours and is complete in about 48. It works open to the air or in closed tanks.
Tools needed:
Fermentation Vessel (Glass Carboy)Thermometer - Lab6
6
Distil off butanol and acetone
Distil off butanol and acetone
Distil the mash and separate the products by fractional distillation into acetone and butyl alcohol.
Tools needed:
Fractionating StillThermometer - LabTools Required
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